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How Team Vitality dominated Astralis to win BLAST Fall Finals
Team Vitality have cemented themselves as the best team in the world after beating Astralis 2-1 in the BLAST Fall Finals.
After a year of closely fought second-place finishes, Team Vitality’s Counter-Strike: Global Offensive squad just won their second major in a row after beating Astralis 2-1 in the grand finals of the BLAST Fall Finals last night.
It wasn’t even close, either: the French team only dropped two maps in their entire tournament run (one against BIG and one in the finals). They'd looked ominously good from early on in the tournament, when they dismantled Natus Vincere, a team they'd reverse swept during last month's IEM to take home their first S-tier trophy of the year. Against BIG they struggled in the first map, but then took two maps back to back in massive victories (16-1 on Inferno and 16-2 on Dust II). Team Vitality looked unstoppable from the start and even one of the most accomplished teams in recent Counter-Strike history wasn’t enough to stop them.
Did you miss some of the rounds from the grand finals? Would you like to relive the very best moments of this slugfest between giants? Then we’ve got you covered with our breakdown of Team Vitality vs Astralis below.
Team Vitality versus Astralis is the perfect example of an unstoppable force colliding with an immovable object. Astralis, known for their meticulously planned-out strategy and timing-based approach to the game, struggled to fend off Vitality’s unrelenting aggression. On the first map, Vertigo, Astralis struggled from the start to dent Team Vitality’s defence. The French squad won the pistol and went on to win the next eight rounds in a row, allowing only a single plant. Astralis kept trying to find different angles to enter bomb sites, but Team Vitality took the close-ranged map to them. The aggressive pushing, great positioning and creative angles were far too much to handle for Astralis.
Team Vitality closed the first half with a 12-3 lead on the board and won the next pistol to get the chance to close early. A surprising anti-eco push from Astralis put a small dent in that plan, but it wasn’t enough for the Danes to turn the tide of battle. Team Vitality won the next three and picked up the first map in the grand finals
Next up was the one, the only, Dust 2. Both Astralis and Team Vitality had shown great results this tournament on the map. Both teams also possess great AWPers and, while Dust 2 is a classic, it still allows creative routes with many paths to both bombsites. Astralis quickly showed why they've been so dominant over the past couple of years with a great CT-side performance, and picked up the first eight rounds in a row. Vitality picked up a couple of rounds, but at halftime, the score was 4-11. Analysts were already starting to talk about the potential third map in the break – but Team Vitality weren’t done playing Dust 2 just yet.
As the second half started, the French team turned the tables and started giving it back to Astralis. They won the pistol, and the second round, before Astralis bit back with a quick plant of their own. The tide started turning as Team Vitality won round after round. With the score getting closer and closer, Astralis suddenly began to seem almost erratic. What once was slow, meticulous play became more chaotic as the rounds progressed. Vitality kept the sites on lockdown with a great double AWP set-up and were able to bring it back all the way to 14-13. However, Astralis were able to regroup after a couple of tactical time-outs and won the next three, evening the map score 1-1.
Down to the wire on fire
The final map was Inferno. Both teams are known for their play on Inferno, but for completely different reasons. Team Vitality love pushing through Banana after early aggression. They'll throw everything at teams, right from the start. Astralis will poke and prod both bases to see where there are advantages and holes in the defence before committing to a gunfight. It generally takes quite a while on Inferno to walk between both sites as a CT, which is why setting up correctly and fending off early aggression is key in playing as the CTs on this map. Yet on Sunday, Team Vitality seemed to disagree.
In the early rounds, Astralis tried poking the bee’s nest by throwing grenades at the site and listening for footsteps. After hearing how many players were on site, they'd back off and reevaluate their plans. Normally, teams would stay put after defending the early aggression, yet Team Vitality decided it would be best to push back. This hyper-aggressive strategy netted them multiple kills and rounds, and Astralis seemed unable to find an effective response. The pace that Team Vitality set as the CTs seemed to be too high for the Danes.
After winning the half 12-3, Team Vitality were at the cusp of another tournament victory, all they had to do was close out what remained of a broken Astralis. On the T-side, they didn’t slow down at all. They kept rushing in while Astralis desperately tried to hold on to their tournament lives. The final rounds were messy and Astralis fought back bravely. The score went to 15-5 and Team Vitality just managed to plant on A site using a split strategy. The last member of Astralis tried desperately to defuse, but Team Vitality open up the crossfire to win.
16-5, 2-1 – Team Vitality have won yet another S-tier tournament. Not even a month has passed since their victory at IEM and they stand on top yet again. A hard year for the organisation has been topped by two great victories, but the year isn’t over yet. With this victory, Team Vitality qualified for the Blast Global Final, where they'll play against the best teams in the world in an offline format. Will the French team stay on top? Even against the best teams in the world? Stay tuned for more!
